ABSTRACT
The pioneering research on expertise was by De Groot, who used the ‘think aloud’ method with expert and novice chess players as they decided strategies and the series of moves. One of the additional traits of experts is that they more commonly ‘work backwards’—experts consider a solution plan as part of their initial consideration of the problem, whereas novices apply a set of rules to work forward to a solution. From the quarter-billion students across the 100,000 studies in the Visible Learning research, it turns out that over 95% of influences on students have an average effect greater than zero-so in this sense, teachers and policymakers are correct to argue there is evidence for most of what they do. This chapter explores the notions of expert and expertise within teaching and has differentiated between expertise and experience. Central to teacher expertise is the aim for maximum impact on student learning.
